Efficacy of remdesivir versus placebo for the treatment of COVID-19: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Desye Gebrie; Desalegn Getnet; Tsegahun Manyazewal

Despite the lack of approved drugs and vaccine for COVID-19, many scientists are endeavoring to find medicines specific to the virus and they have been looking into repurposing the already approved drugs. As of 29 March 2020, there has been 209 clinical trials registered in clinicaltrials.gov and estimated to be over 500 [12] . Currently, several drugs such as remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, Ritonavir+Lopinavir, Arbidol and interferon are undergoing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to test their efficacy and safety for the treatment of COVID-19 in many countries [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] . Among these investigating drugs remdesivir showed promising results [18] [19] . Remdesivir is nucleotide analog prodrug and shows broad spectrum antiviral activity against many RNA viruses including SARS-CoV-2 [20] [21] . Remdesivir has been reported as a treatment of COVID-19 in United States, China and Italy [13, 15, 22] . while results are yet controversial [9] . To bridge this gap, here we aim to conduct a systematic review and All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.